A Program For Recovery

Treatment for Addiction

Substance abuse programs, can be the introduction to the program that can provide lasting sobriety.  Interestingly, medical professionals do not have any pharmaceutical remedies for drug/alcohol addiction, which is often resistant to talk therapy only. Furthermore, relapse rates run as high as 40 to 60 percent for many types of substance abuse. Although, Heroin addicts often benefit from methadone, a synthetic opioid that thwarts cravings by substituting for some of heroin’s effects; naltrexone, an opioid receptor blocker, helps alcoholics kick their habit by reducing the desire for alcohol. But most victims of drug dependence are left with no antidote to the neurological havoc their habit has wrought in their brain.

“We have very few medications for the treatment of addiction,” says Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), “and it’s urgent” that more such drugs are developed.

The urgency for drugs that aid the detox process are crucial.  More importantly they allow the user to be open to new ideas and calm the mind enough to seek change.  While in the grip of detox, the addict wants nothing more than to stop the pain.  Therefore, advancements in medications for addiction give the addicted a better chance of gaining a foothold in changing and laying the foundation for a way of life that requires responsibility to ones own journey.  Currently, the only miracle cure “medicine” for lasting sobriety has been adhering to a 12 step program post-treatment, developing a fellowship, and being of service.